


Hotel California (well, sort of)

by truewolf



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Pre-Slash, based on motel california, someone help my babies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-23
Updated: 2017-08-23
Packaged: 2018-12-19 04:39:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11890209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/truewolf/pseuds/truewolf
Summary: They had always thought the day that they had left the "Motel from Hell" (as Stiles prefers to reference it as), would thankfully be the last time that they would ever have to step foot on the property. But, with a compromising situation and the ever present loose ends to tie, it looks like they'll have to manage one more night there. Will they even make it through the night, or come out even stronger together?AKA,I'm still unhappy with the treatment of all of their mental health's since season 2 and Sciles is the best relationship on tv so I'm finally just spewing my ideas on here and seeing if anyone else can relate





	Hotel California (well, sort of)

“Well, this sucks.”

Scott glanced over at Stiles’ slightly collapsed, dirty frame resting against a highway sign, telling them how far away any sign of actual human civilization may exist. It might’ve actually have been helpful if they had any wifi, but it seems like the middle of Californian desert doesn’t carry service too well. Or, you know, at all.

Again, with the accordance of the day they just had (or really, their lives the past few years) they really should’ve expecting something like this. Well actually, they had, and that’s why they had a plan B. Amazingly, this time the whole ‘let’s hope the first plan goes well and improvise if not’ thing didn’t suddenly work for them either.

It was more or less the usual; fighting, no one actually winning, and them barely running out with their lives. This time though, it was ‘the middle of actual fucking nowhere!’ addition.

Although, if they knew how dirty ghouls fought and weren’t just 'ghosts with a lot of feelings' as Stiles dubbed it, they wouldn’t have had to abandon the truck they had somehow convinced Derek to loan them for the weekend.

Scott shakes his head a little before turning to look back at the too fast setting sun.

“Understatement, dude.”

In the past two hours or so, only one car had passed by, and there would be no way for them to try to walk any farther to try and find any civilization. Stiles was weakened from the fight, and Scott was pretty exhausted. Even for a werewolf, there was only so much he could handle before he’d eventually start to flag.

Their appearances weren’t helping much, either. Scratches dotted over Stiles’ arm and a few on his face and neck, along with a slight bruise along his cheekbone. The desert muck and dust that was baked on his skin along with his sweat completed the whole rag tag teenager look. Scott himself wasn’t much better. He took some major blows to the abdomen and, even with his healing, the wounds would’ve been critical to a human, and would take longer to heal. Scott had to angle his denim jacket just right to hide the enormous blood stains soaking through.

All in all, not a very convincing look for two teenage hitchhikers.

Stiles repeatedly kept tapping on his knee, hand clutching and releasing the tail of his button - down flannel shirt. “So, has any divine idea or inspiration hit you about how we can survive the night in the desert?”

Scott glanced back at the one road going through to Stiles. “I thought this was the idea” he said, opening his hands to gesture to the deserted highway in front of them.

“Yeah well it was, but that was four hours ago and the sun was still pretty high in the sky at that point.” Stiles dragged the heel of his foot around the dirt, drawing little circles in the desert sand.

“Point taken.” Scott sighed out. He knew that the situation was bad at the moment, and right now it showed no signs of improving. No matter how much optimism and hope he has (which at the moment isn’t much – and that’s saying something considering that it’s Scott, it’s what he’s practically made of), if they kept on waiting around for a solution, they would die – either from hypothermia, unwelcoming animals in the desert, or whatever the hell else goes bump in the night. Even though all three are a pretty probable cause, hypothermia seemed to be the one to set in the quickest. Even in just a few minutes it became considerably cooler.

After a few moment of anxious silence, Stiles spoke up. “Do you remember that survivor show we used to watch? Like, when we were in middle school and tried to rough it out in the woods by ourselves.”

Scott raised an eyebrow, giving off a very unimpressed look. “You make it sound like we both were both prepared for our ‘expedition’.”

Stiles sputtered, arms flailing and an indigenous expression on his face. “What? We were totally prepared! One hundred and ten percent ready to go, actually.”

“So forgetting a tent and sleeping bag is not necessary to bring, but our _Game Boys_ would protect us from the wild outdoors?”

“Well, I couldn’t _not _bring it, Scott. It’s an absolute essential, alright – you know that as well as I do. Hey don’t give me that look! That Pokemon training had to be effective for something.” Stiles had a glimmer in his eyes, completely full of mischief. Despite the circumstances, the first half of the trip had actually been good for them both - blasting the radio as far as Roscoe could handle, eating gross fast food, getting away from it all - Scott ached for the days where that was the norm.__

__More so, he just missed _them_. Even if his plans were terrible, they would still be fun and full of laughter once they got in trouble, and knew they would do it again. Scott knows, somewhere deep inside him, that a world where that was standard for them could no longer exist. He was just being too naive, too hopeful for a time where every action mattered. Where lives were constantly at stake. _ _

__Despite himself, Scott pulled himself out of the reverie and couldn’t help but smile back, basking in feel of nostalgia. It’s amazing how much he missed being with Stiles before the bite, when they were allowed to be stupid and careless, and every decision they made wasn’t between life or death. “I still can’t believe we still ended up going.”_ _

__If Scott had imagined the sly look on his face before, there was definitely one there one now. “Well it wasn’t the worst time we ever explored! That didn’t end up…” Stiles stopped himself before finishing that sentence, because it _really_ wasn’t the worst time they decided going to go somewhere they shouldn’t have been. _ _

__Stiles cleared his throat, trying to continue his last thought. “Well, going into it with our little ten year old brains it made perfect sense. It was the perfect adventure. For one: I had a great plan, and two, I’m sure my experience in boy scouts had reassured any doubts you had about your safety with your fearless guide by your side.”_ _

__Scott just gave a small rolled his eyes and shook his eyes, the barely there smile betraying his body language. They both sat there in companionable silence until…_ _

__“Wait, didn’t you get kicked out of the Boy Scouts?”_ _

__“No! I-I, I just…resigned from my troop, that’s all. We were doing some dumb exercises that didn’t actually help in wilderness survival. I got bored.” Stiles trailed off, shifting his weight on his hips and looking at him at with a look that Scott long ago recognized as the ‘that’s-sounds-pretty-reasonable-so-please-believe-me-Scott’ look._ _

__He narrowed his eyes a bit, a smirk growing on his face. “Oh my god you totally got kicked out, didn’t you?”_ _

__Stiles tried to look indigenous for a moment, but his shoulders dropped a bit and leg started to bounce a bit. They stared each other for about a minute, until Stiles finally couldn’t take the stillness anymore._ _

__“Whatever, either way I was no longer on the troop. The point is that we didn’t need all of their rules and handbooks to survive. All we needed was our common sense and some reality tv.”_ _

__Scot gave a slight snort. “Yeah, ‘cause that turned out brilliantly last time.”_ _

__“Oh c’mon, what even went wrong?”_ _

__Scott’s eyebrows shot up into his hairline. “As soon as we were out a good distance, you sprained your ankle, and while in the midst of trying to get out of the woods we had to stop a million times because of my asthma.”_ _

__“Okay, that honestly could’ve happened to anyone in our situation.” Stiles defended._ _

__Scott continued on. “Animals took most of our food. We lost a backpack that included our extra clothes. And not to mention, getting a poison ivy rash on our-”_ _

__“The details of the trip is not the important part, alright? My point is, is that we actually made it home alive…even if we had to take extreme measures.” He specifically pointed a solid look at Scott, before taking in the darker landscape of the desert at night. “And I think tonight is a night where we might have to do that again.”_ _

__Scott has known Stiles ever since he can remember. They grew up together side by side, loyalties never swayed, there during the thick and thin. So Scott is more than aware that those words should not only strike him with fear, but also be more than aware that whatever plan he has next would probably not bode too well for either of them._ _

__Scott fully turned to look at him now, warily studying his body language. His right leg steadily kept bouncing up and down, eyes slightly narrowed. His tongue swiped out of his mouth before worrying the bottom of his lip._ _

__Scott sighed and studied the sun. He estimated that it had been twenty to thirty minutes since the sky had painted itself in an orange and pink warning. Slowly but surely, it's really turning red now, the dangerous color that he would only see in Scott's eyes. The sunsets of here only take anywhere from fifteen to twenty five minutes. Once it sets, the next hour or two will start to have temperatures drop drastically. By then it would be really dark, and everyone knows better than to drive through such a long stretch of desert this late. Overall chances? Not so good._ _

__Taking a deep breath, he tried to control his nerves. Glancing at Stiles, he knew that it would be worse for him if they had to be out in this cold. Scott runs as hot as a furnace (werewolf hack), but Stiles did not. On top of that and the sustaining injuries he had could turn out bad. He had to do something – he just can’t –won’t- let anything to happen to his best friend._ _

__“What were you thinking?”_ _

__As if on cue, Stiles gave more more glance over, then turned to Scott and started to explain. “How far do you think your sense of smell can reach out here?”_ _

__Instinctively, Scott honed in on his sense of smell and tried to see how far he get detect different scents. “Maybe…two to three miles?” Usually out in the open he could go farther and a lot of distinctly, but since his body is still trying to recover and he’s accompanied Stiles and his own scent, it’s harder._ _

__Stiles took a moment to look around, the wheels spinning in his head. “Can you smell any type of larger animal?”_ _

__Scott slowly turned to face Stiles, eyes squinted, obviously trying to either prepare himself to fight the idea or._ _

__After a minute or two of Scott sniffing the air (which Stiles had to shut down a dog joke) he finally turned back to Stiles, eyes glowing a faint red in the approaching darkness. “about maybe a mile and a half out there may be some sort of wild deer or horse. The only other thing I could pick up is more South.” They both twist over their backs in hopes that they could see something in the distance._ _

__“There’s a carcass. Its…its either a fox or coyote, I can’t tell. Otherwise, I can’t really pick up anything else. Busy or not, I don’t think larger animals would come this close to the road.”_ _

__Stiles clapped his hand on Scott’s shoulder before picking himself off the desert floor and brushing himself off. He offers a hand up to Scott who declines, even though he struggles off get up himself._ _

__Stiles knows that he would do anything for the pack. Constantly checking up on everyone and taking care of everyone (especially after the shit show that was the last disaster) and he knows that he feels responsible for all of them. As much as Scott doesn’t believe him, he doesn’t understand that every life that ever encounters the supernatural isn’t on him, and there are things that are just out of their control, especially…_ _

__Especially after the nogitsune. As much as people want to believe, the truth is that no one is ever actually in control of their own life. There are too many factors, too many other people and circumstances that makes this a way of life._ _

__Scott doesn’t completely get that. He can’t always be there to rescue everyone, and no one should expect him of that. Sometimes all you can do is deal with the cards you were dealt with and just do your best. He tries to be perfect, tries to do all the right things and take care of everybody else. But at some point he needs to also take care of himself, too. He hasn’t been for a while now._ _

__Before Stiles can even comment though, Scott finally steels himself physically and mentally repeating himself once more. “So, what are you thinking?”_ _

__Stiles stops before answering thinking whether or not to mention that he’s still in pain and how he has to allow himself to heal. But he guessed that he has all night to pester him about it. More physically threatening things need to be dealt with…and fast._ _

__He sighs, knowing that this is only plan and how much Scott is not going to like it._ _

__“So, you said there was a carcass a little while that way?” he nods towards behind Scott._ _

__“Yeah? So?” Amazingly, Scotts hopes about this plan being very plausible is very quickly plummeting._ _

__“So…” Stiles trailed off, not sure how to say this in a great and convincing way. He clears his throat once more before starting again. “So! Since we have no blankets, substantial jackets or really any more of shelter to survive the night in a desert, it seems like the only form of warmth we can get is-“_ _

__“Nope”. Scott was really hoping Stiles had come up with another suggestion – actually any other suggestion than that. “We are not going there.”_ _

__“Well, do you have any other ideas?” Stiles threw his hands out in front of him, trying to make the desperation more clear. “In just a few minutes, the sun will be completely set, and we have no other source of heat than a denim jacket and a flannel shirt.”_ _

__“You don’t even know if it’d work! It could just as easily do nothing, and then instead be covered in blood, and, and animal carcass, and it’s just so gross-“_ _

__“I know, it is.” Stiles voice finally dropped and broke a bit, dry from dehydration and the anxiety and desperation ramping up more and more as time goes on. “But we cannot, will not die from hypothermia after all the things we’ve been through. Alright? Not an option!”_ _

__Scott’s eyes turned down at the ground, letting the reality of the situation settle in. “We won’t okay? We’ll find another way, we always do.”_ _

__Those unintentional words brought goosebumps all over his body. Before He could say any kind of reassurance, a bright light was coming behind Scott’s back, making him look like an angel in the middle of the night._ _

__They both snapped around to see that the source of the light was from headlights of a car. _A car_._ _

__Holy shit._ _

__They both immediately ran up to the very edge of the road, Stiles vehemently waving his thumb in the air, Scott practically putting his whole arm out in the road. Scott couldn’t tell what kind of car it was, other than it being very old, and very rusty._ _

__And much to their amazement, the car actually slowed down and stopped._ _

__The passenger side window rolled down to reveal a woman in her late 40's, frizzy hair half put up, and sheer floral vest that covered a stained white t-shirt._ _

__She leaned over the passenger seat, squinting her eyes to try to see them better. They both tried to act as natural as they could, while covering up injuries and in Scott’s case, major blood stains. Nope. Nothing suspicious about this at all._ _

__After a few more excruciatingly awkward and tense moments, Scott took the initiative and walked a few paces up to the rusted ‘93 Ford, flashing his killer smile, and for once managing to be subtle in his movements as to not show any injury on his abdomen. Nice._ _

__“Hi! We’re kinda in a bit of a blunder right now, and we could really use a ride”_ _

__She just kept staring at Scott, her gaze only shifting once from Scott to Stiles. it unnerved him in the ways of when he's by the nemeton. He just prayed that was because of something behind them, not in front._ _

__“Am I going to get in trouble from the law by helping you?” she asked suspiciously. The woman had a bit of an accent to her which Stiles could’ve swore was southern._ _

__Scott nervously swallowed. “Uh, no.”_ _

__She just looked back at Stiles’ bruised face and back at Scott, and heavily pencil-filled eyebrow lifted at them._ _

__“I mean,” Scott started again, as she started to lean back into her seat, hand straining to move toward the shifter. “We both have parents in law enforcement, so we’d get out of it?”_ _

__The woman kept staring at them and the automatic clock on her dashboard, obviously thinking about her options. She could leave them out there, but that could mean a death sentence for them. At the same time, pick up the wrong people (two beat up teenage boys very well fit that description) and she could be putting herself at risk here._ _

__Seeing that she wasn’t buying it and that if something isn’t done soon the latter had a very good chance of becoming true, he stepped up to the car next to Scott, clearing his throat._ _

__“We were just filming for a movie out here earlier today, but we had a problem with the equipment and our car broke down out here. " Stiles tried for one last plea, "We just need a place to stay for the night. The first motel or 24 hour gas station we’ll be out of your hair.”_ _

__As soon as the woman heard the words ‘filming for a movie’, her eyes had widened, and seemed to look them over in a new light._ _

__She reached over the edge of the driver's seat, hand hovering over the shifter and…_ _

__...pulled the backseat door open._ _

__She smiled for the first time, and then gave them a reprimanding look Harrison couldn’t even dream of._ _

__“Get in boys. First sign of any sketchiness or serial killer vibes and you just trust me, with no hesitation I will throw your asses back out to be food for the wolves._ _

**Author's Note:**

> AHHHHH. 
> 
> GUYS. Guys. It's finally up!
> 
> I have been thinking about this idea for a fanfic since **June 2016** after listening to the song 'Hotel California' by The Eagle. After finding this draft on my google drive the other day, I've decided to finally finish this chapter and just post it. It's one part of three, and I already have the next two chapters laid out. I'm also working on another Sciles fanfic I just started that I'm **SO** excited about, so stayed tuned! 
> 
> *Please note: I do not live in or near California, or by any desert in that respect. I am just a mere girl from the midwest who likes a tv show that's halfway across the country.*
> 
> Kudos and comments are my life blood. I would appreciate any feedback!
> 
> Thanks guys!


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